We live in an era of the Quantified Self: bio-sensor technology is so widely, cheaply available and portable that we can track ourselves in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of settings, and learn all kinds of new things about ourselves and our environments.

MindRider Maps Manhattan is the first study to examine quantified brain data in a geographic and environmental context. A team of ten cyclists logged their mental data as they rode Manhattan’s major streets wearing the MindRider, a brain-tracking technology developed at MIT, NeuroSky, and DuKode Studio. Analysts then compared the resulting map against municipal data publicly available from the city of New York, exposing unexpected relationships between individuals, environments, and experiences.

Through a series of simple maps and observations, MindRider Maps Manhattan explores subtleties of these relationships and suggests the power that the Quantified Self can collectively make on the modern city.